Process for treating animal-sinews.



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

\VILLIAM POLATSIK, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO SIMON FLORSHEIM, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 10, 1905.

Application filed June 10,1904. Serial No. 212,016.

To all 1071 0772 it 71mg concern:

Be it known that I, TILLIAM POLATSIK, a subject of the Emperor of Austria-Hungary, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a certain new and useful Process for Treating Animal-Sim ews, of which the following is a specification.

The object of this invention is to produce a fiber from the sinews of animalssuch as, horses, steers, &c.-which shall be extremely 5 strong and durable and adapted to be woven into cloth, cord, or rope and, in fact, used in any way in which vegetable fiber has hitherto been used.

The product of the present invention is much stronger than hemp, silk, cotton, wool, or other fiber, so that it will be possible to manufacture therefrom rope or cloth having a much greater tensile strength than any at present in common use.

The sinews from which the fiber is produced may be taken from animals which have been slaughtered or from those which have died a natural death, the quality of the sinew and the resulting product in either case being the same.

The process is one which can be easily and cheaply practiced, and the material is one which at present forms one of the by-products of animals, so that the fiber of the present invention can be cheaply and extensively manufactured and will be usable in many fields.

The resulting fiber is soft, pliable, and easily woven and may be disintegrated into threads of the fineness of silk, thereby enabling a very fine thread to be formed from the fiber, so that its use will not be limited to the manufacture of coarse fabrics or ropes.

The sinews are taken from a horse, steer, or other animal, and when first sent from the slaughterhouse the sinew proper is surrounded by an outer skin and an inner fatty skin which connects the outer skin with the sinews. Before the fibrous portion of the sinew itself can be properly treated it is necessary to remove the skins so that the chemical ingredients with which the sinew is finally treated will be enabled to act directly upon the fibrous portions of the sinew proper, of which the product of the present invention is composed. In order to effect this preliminary treatment, the sinews are first immersed in a bath, preferably of benzm or gasolene, al-

though other petroleum products, such as kerosene, may be used. The use of kerosene, however, is not desirable for the reason that the resultant product will retain an odor which will render it disagreeable. The sinews are left in the preliminary bath for from one to five days or even longer, according to the strength desired for the resulting product and according to the age and character of the sinew to be treated. This bath makes the outer skin lean, so that it can be removed from the sinew by hand or with a knife without damage to the fibers of the sinew. For this bath it is preferred to use about six gallons of benzin or gasolene for every one hundred pounds of sinews, and it is necessary that the bath should be clean and pure and renewed for each batch of sinews, since the fatty animal substances which are drawn from the sinews will remain in the solution, polluting the same and rendering it unfit for further use. If the bath be impure, the resulting product will retain more or less of the fatty animal substances which will render it imperfect and unclean and liable to be easily rotted. After the sinews are emerged from the first bath they will be clean and white and ready to be treated to the second bath.

The second bath is intended to preserve the sinews and render them odorless and at the same time impart a certain tensile strength thereto. This bath may be called the preservative or tempering bath and is preferably composed of the following ingredients: for one hundred pounds of sinews, eight to ten gallons of water, to which are added three pounds of alum or boric acid and one pound of copper vitriol, and such substances are dissolved in the water, but may be varied somewhat in proportion, depending upon the strength desired. In this bath the sinews remain for from two to four days or longer, and it will be understood that the length of time in which it is necessary to immerse the sinews in the second bath and also in the first bath will depend largely upon the age, character, and size of the sinew and the kind of animal from which it is obtained. It is impossible to give an exact statement as to the length of time, for the reason that the sinews of cattle ordinarily do not need the same length of time for treatment as the sinews of horses, the latter being tougher and ordinarily larger. If the sinew remain too long in the bath, it will become brittle, which quality renders it unfit for use as fiber for weaving or other purposes.

After the sinew has been removed from the second bath it will still contain aslight amount of fatness, and it is desirable to remove most of such fatness, which could not be removed from the first. bath on account of the skin which enveloped the fibers of the sinew. The third bath acts directly upon the fibers themselves and consists of the following ingredients: for one hundred pounds of sinews, ten gallons of water, in which is dissolved an alkaline substance, preferably three-fourths of a pound of potassium hydroxid. After the sinews remain in the third bath for a short time the fatty substance will come to the surface of the sinew in the form of a coating, and when the sinews are in this condition they should be removed from the bath and the fatty coating scraped off by means of a knife or other suitable implement, leaving the pure fiber ofthe sinew with aslight amount of animal matter contained therein to give it temper or resiliency and toughness. The sinews in this condition consist of fine thin fibers, and in order to preserve the strength of said fibers and render them soft and pliable they are finally treated in a tanning-bath, which preferably consists of the following ingredients: for one hundred pounds of sinews, ten gallons of water, in which is dissolved one pound of tannin or other suitable tanning substance, and in the tanning-bath the sinews are immersed for from eight to ten days or longer, after which the sinews are taken out and are subjected to the pressure of a flat hydraulic press, which flattens out the sinews and disintegrates them to a large extent. While under pressure the sinew is dried, and after the drying it can be cut into lengths and still further disintegrated by additional pressure, and finally combed out with a suitable combing or carding implement after the manner in which flax is combed, which final treatment serves to break up the sinew into its constituent fibers, which will be fine and soft like silk or flax and are in condition to be used for weaving, spinning, or other purposes.

The resulting fibers are soft, pliable, and of very great tensile strength, being stronger than silk, hemp, or other fiber, and the sinews of large animals produce fibers long enough for all sorts of weaving purposes, so that no difficulty will be found in manufacturing from the fiber rope, cord, cloth, or similar fabric. The fibers are free from all greasy matter and are entirely odorless, so that the article manufactured therefrom will not possess any disagreeable features.

The process is simple and easily practiced and the resulting product of great practical value in the weaving art.

What I regard as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The process of treating animal-sinews", which consists first in removing the external fleshy animal matter to expose the fibrous portion of the sinew, second in applying the-preservative ingredient to the sinew to give it tenacity and flexibility, third in removing the a fatty animal matter from the fibrous portion .of the sinew, fourth in treating the sinew to a tanning process, and fifth in drying and disintegrating the fibers, substantially as described. V

' 2. The process of treating animal-sinews, which consists first in immersing the sinews in a petroleum-bath to remove the outer fleshy animal-skin, second in immersing the sinews in a preservative or hardeningbath for the purpose of rendering the sinews coherent and flexible, third in removing the fatty animal matter from the sinew proper, fourth in subjecting'the sinew to a tanning treatment, and fifth in drying the sinew and disintegrating the sinew into fibers, substantially as described.

3. The process of treating animal-sinews, which consists first in immersing the sinews in a petroleum-bath, second in immersing the sinews in a preserving and hardening bath, third in immersing the sinews in analkaline bath, and fourth in tanning the sinews and disintegrating them into their constituent fibers, substantially as described.

4. The process of treating animal-sinews, which consists first in removing the external fleshy animal matter, second in immersing the sinews in a hardening bath, third in immers= ing the sinews in an alkaline bath, and fourth in tanning the sinews and disintegrating them into their constituent fibers, substantially as described,

5. The process of treating animal-sinews, which consists in immersing the sinews in a. petroleum-bath for a long period of time for removing the external fleshy animal matter and skin, immersing the sinews in a bath composed of water having added thereto boric acid or alum and copper vitriol, immersing the sinews in an alkaline bath, tanning the sinews and finally disintegrating them into their constituent fibers, substantially as described.

6. The process of treating animal-sinews, which consists first in immersing them in a bath composed of clear benzin or gasolene, second in immersing them in a bath'composed of water having added thereto boric acid or alum and copper vitriol in proportions of-two to one, third in immersing them in an alkaline bath and disintegrating the sinews into their constituent fibers preparatory to use, substantially as described.

7 The process of treating animal sinews, which consists first in immersing them in'a bath composed of clear benzin or gasolene, second in immersingthem in a bath composed of Water having added thereto boric acid or alum and copper vitriol in proportions of two to one, third in immersing them in an alkaline bath, fourth in tanning the sinews and disintegrating them into their constituent fibers preparatory to use, substantially as described.

8. The process of treating animal-sinews, which consists first in removing therefrom the external fleshy animal matter, second in immersing them in a preservative bath composed of water having added thereto boric acid or alum and copper vitriol in proportions of two to one, third in immersing them in an alkaline bath, fourth in immersing them in a tanningbath, and fifth in compressing and disintegrating the sinews preparatory to use, substantially as described.

9. The process of treating animal-sinews, which consists first in loosening and removing the external animal skin to expose the fibrous portion of the sinew, second in treating the fibrous portion of the sinew in a preservative bath, next in removing most of the fatty animal matter from the fibrous sinew proper, and finally in tanning and disintegrating the sinew into its constituent fibers preparatory to use, substantially as described.

10. The process of treating animal-sinews which consists first in loosening and removing the external animal skin to expose the fibrous portion of the sinew, next in immersing and treating the sinew with a preservative, next in withdrawing from the fibrous portion of the sinew most of the fatty matter therein contained, and finally disintegrating the fibrous portion of the sinew into its constituent parts preparatory to use, substantially as described.

\VILLlAh I POLATSIK.

\Vitnesses:

SAMUEL \V. BANNING, SIMON FLORSHEIM. 

